Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
My lady and I have a nice little tradition going. We’ve been doing it for a few years now and it really seems to be working out rather well.
What’s the tradition? Well, it’s basically avoiding the world during the holidays and spending time with each other over a nice dinner. We’ve found some great restaurants by doing this. I hope the trend continues.
I bet people think we’re nuts. “What? How in the world can you not be with your loving family during these special times? Are you crazy?“ To that I say please stop asking me those kinds of questions. I like to think that our families are secure enough to know we love them. I mean, we talk enough. Like three times a week enough. Any more of me and they might specifically ask me to stay away.
Do you know what else we do? We don’t exchange gifts. Oh here we go again…I know, I know. “Why sir, do you not exchange gifts?” I’ll tell you why. Because I don’t need anything and neither does anyone else. Really. When my friends and I talk about this, we all usually end up in agreement. My sister and I were laughing about all the garbage people get each other during the holidays and she said something really funny. She said, “Do you know what I really want for Christmas? A house.” That pushed me off the deep end. I started laughing and replied, “Yeah, how about someone paying the electric bill or stopping by to shovel the driveway.” I mean really, I don’t think anyone needs more stuff to sit on a shelf somewhere for a year before it hits the garbage. Every time I head North on 91 past Hartford and look at that huge mound of dirt I feel horrible.
I know, I’m a Grinch.
But I’m not a Grinch when we’re eating mighty good food down at the Saybrook Point Inn in Old Saybrook, CT. As I mentioned in my post about our Thanksgiving dinner, I am diggin’ the buffet idea. All you can eat and the food is awesome.
It’s weird, whenever I think of the word “buffet,” I think of bad food in Vegas. Then I have to remember that when you go to a buffet style dinner in a real restaurant, there are real chefs making the food. From what I have experienced this year, it’s really really good.
The Saybrook Point Inn pleasantly surprised me. I just couldn’t believe how good the food was. I can still remember what I ate. Man…and the desserts. Holy mother. I ate this mousse cake that I had to hold myself back from. Oh yeah, the restaurant is nice too…but the food!
Okay, enough about the great dinner that I ate multiple plates of. Enough about that. We did other stuff too.
After dinner, I drove around a bit. My better half wanted to go back to the Old Saybrook town beach to collect some shells. Her collection is growing. Of course, I drove her there. I kept telling her that I always wanted to visit a beach with snow on it. I thought it would be cool and it was. Oh yeah…she got her shells.
Before we visited the beach though, I thought it would be fun to check out this one neighborhood that we passed the last time we were in the area. The area is called “Fenwick” I think. That’s what Google Earth is telling me. It’s sort of like a peninsula with a golf course on it as well as a bunch of really nice houses. This is the type of thing that gets my attention.
During our little tour of the area, we passed by the beach, the Lynde Point Lighthouse and some Monk Parakeets. Monk Parakeets? That’s right. Our jaws dropped when we saw about five bright green birds sitting on the branches of the tree that held their nests. It was so strange because I thought these types of birds only lived in the Amazon. Apparently not. They also live in Connecticut. You should have seen me fiddling around trying to get my camera out of the bag.
So there you have it. Our very simple Christmas of 2009. Just the way I like it.
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Saybrook Point Inn sign
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Docks at Saybrook Point Inn
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Looking East from the Saybrook Point Inn toward Great Island
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Looking North from the Saybrook Point Inn up the Connecticut River
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Monk Parakeets in Fenwick, CT (Old Saybrook)
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Lynde Point Lighthouse – Old Saybrook, CT
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Fancy chocolate from the Saybrook Point Inn
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Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
After a little break from playing tennis, I am back at it. I played last night and again this morning. I’m a little sore.
I didn’t think I would ever get back, with the way things were headed. I remember missing one clinic for one reason or another, and then the snow hit. Come the holidays and my schedule was all messed up. Personally, I’ll play tennis on Christmas morning, it’s everyone else who wants some time off. Oh, they probably want to play too, they just aren’t telling anyone.
I lost the match last night and two tie-breakers this morning. When this happens and I’m on the court, I hang my head in shame. I make up all sorts of excuses and increase my level of smack talk. This is all just to mess with my competitor’s head. Even though I look like I’m upset, I’m really not. You see, I have a method to my madness and I’ll tell you what it is.
When I play tennis, I play to lose. What? Seriously. I play tennis to get better and if I’m not hitting the ball with all my heart and missing my target, I’ll never be able to hit the ball with all my heart and hit my target. Practice makes perfect. Well, in tennis, no one will ever be perfect, especially not me.
Let me use a little a little analogy to help explain. Say I was a race car driver and I practiced all the time. Now say that the usual speed of a car race is 200MPH. If I practiced at 40MPH, I would never win a real race. Got it?
I do miss a lot of shots though and that’s what usually makes me lose. It doesn’t help that my partner runs every night and he can get to every damn ball I put over the net. He has a nasty habit of now hitting to my forehand (my weak stroke). He fears my backhand…that’s right, FEARS it. And he should.
Tennis ball
This is a tennis ball that I have kept for a while. It rolls around the back seat in the car. I’m not sure why I keep it. Paul might recognize it from when we used to play catch in the office.
I have an issue with losing steam during the second set. It happened last night and it happened today towards the end of the clinic. When it happens, I completely lose whatever motivation I had to play. There was only one time where I kicked butt all the way through and that was when I ate dinner and two candy bars and then played. All that juice kept me going. I am going to start doing that more.
“It’s the little things that make all the difference.”
That’s what I said today, while trying to improve my forehand. My buddy said, “You know that’s true. That applies to a bunch of things in life too.” We are very introspective while on the court.
Oh, tennis is one of those games. If you love it as much as I do, you’ll know what it feels like to never be satisfied. It’s like I said today, if I keep losing, then I only have one place to go from here…up.
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Sunday, September 21st, 2008
I have often wondered if there is some grand resource out there for those of us who are interested in internet traffic trends by industry. It would also be helpful if this data were returned to me chronologically. Daily would be ideal.
If you run your own websites as part, or all, of your business, internet traffic trends are of great concern to you. Some days, your websites seem to be over performing. This is great and it’s very easy to get used to. The entrepreneurial spirit in you goes into hyper-drive. Well, what goes up, must come down. The only problem is, on the internet, there are way too many variables that dictate website success to ignore any “downturn” in website performance. If there was just a way to gauge whether it’s the industry as a whole that has taken a downturn or if it’s just your one website.
Personally, I have seen rather predictable ups and downs in traffic. I remember back over the Summer, during the holidays. On July fourth, web traffic was anemic, only to have an upswing shortly thereafter. I suppose you could just let your website be and hope for the best, but any business owner worth his/her salt isn’t going to sit idly by and watch outside forces play such a strong role.
I think the type of information I am talking about is available over at ComScore, but I believe you must pay for that. I suppose I could trot over to Alexa and type in one of my competitor’s URLs to see how their traffic has fared during the past few weeks, but Alexa’s website traffic stats are notoriously unreliable. They are built upon the Alexa toolbar, which is geared much more towards some groups of internet users, rather than others. Let’s just say that computer geeks gravitate towards the Alexa toolbar, but soccer moms don’t. Tech website traffic is going to look a heck of a lot higher than pottery websites. There may some value in the site across industries though, since those Alexa toolbar people would visit various types of similar websites.
I will continue to look for an answer to this little issue I am having, but in the meantime, if you know of any industry based traffic trend sources, please post a comment.
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Saturday, April 19th, 2008
I think it’s actually after shave. I don’t shave with a blade, so it doesn’t go on my face. I think cologne and after shave are the same thing anyway. They smell the same.
Well, it’s official. I finished my first bottle of cologne…in my life. I think Laura got this for me a few years ago. I have been working on it every day. Am I the first male on the globe to actually finish a bottle of cologne? I think the tradition is to just keep getting them for birthdays and holidays, but I’m not sure what happens after that.
I fell in love with Aspen a long time ago while in my teenage years. It’s one of those colognes that you can pick up in Rite Aid for a few bucks. It has a nice smell. Now, onto my bottle of Cool Water. Oh, how cool it will be.
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Friday, December 28th, 2007
I took some videos with my digital camera of the Red Lion Inn, in Stockbridge, MA while we were up there over Christmas. The camera did a pretty good job, but ran out of room for any real video.
For what I got, I think it did a nice job. If you will notice, I am not the best narrator or video taker. Oh well.
This was just a little bit of the Inn. The place is huge, but people would probably think I was a nut, walking around taking video. I tried to get it while no one was around.
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Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
Well, we got back from the Red Lion Inn just a few hours ago. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas night there. It was a pretty nice little getaway. What was especially nice was actually staying at the inn, at last.
We have been there so many times before for dinner or just stopping by, but never for an actual stay, so that was exciting. After we checked in, we went up to our room on the third floor. There are 101 rooms at the inn, so finding it needed some direction. What caught me immediately after entering the room was the fact that the old inn was showing its age. Let’s just say that things have “settled” over the years. It gives the place its character. I think people like that because the place is always very busy.
Back when I called to make the reservations just a few weeks ago, I asked if the dining room and tavern had dress codes for the nights we would be eating there. The front desk informed me that men didn’t have to wear jackets in the dining room on Christmas Eve, because dinner was for guests only, no outsiders. Also, on Christmas night, I didn’t have to wear a jacket because we were eating in the Tavern and there was no dress code in there. As it turns out, I was supposed to wear a jacket for Christmas dinner, no matter where we were eating. This took me by surprise, because I didn’t bring a jacket.
We got in the car and shot up to “Prime Outlets” in Lee, MA. We went in a few store looking for a sport coat. No one had any…until we saw Brooks Brothers. We went in there to find a bunch of sport coats. I picked one out and bought it on the fly. By the way, I had other (nicer) clothes for dinner, not the ones I was wearing. Whoa, that was close.
So, one of the main reasons we went up to the Red Lion Inn for Christmas was to visit Williamstown, MA. We wanted to check out the town as a potential place to live. We are always doing that. It’s part of me being annoying.
We decided to drive North on Rt.7, through Pittsfield, MA to Rt.9 West and onto Rt.8 North. We drove through Adams, MA and into North Adams, MA. This was a good thing, because I always wanted to visit these towns too. I hear a lot about them while listening to NPR. One big famous thing we saw was Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) (Blog) up in North Adams. We didn’t go in, but we did pass by to grab a few good shots of the place. This one was the best one.
It was a good thing we visited these areas, because we were able to cross them off our list of places to live. I am sure there are a bunch of nice people and some good culture, but it wasn’t for us.
We took Rt.2 West into Williamstown, MA. I have to say, this is a very nice town. Everything was really clean and neat. We drove down Spring Street and around a few roads. I did notice that the whole town was empty. It was Christmas, but we only saw one other person in the whole entire town. This creeped us out a little bit. As we were driving down Rt.7 back into Pittsfield, Laura turned to me and said, “We would really have to like one another to live in that town.” Not that it wasn’t very nice, it just seemed lonely when college wasn’t in session. Take a look at the photos of Spring Street.
There was one last thing I wanted to see on the way back to the inn. It was Pontoosuc Lake. On Google Earth, someone posted a really cool photo of the lake through some pine trees on the south side. There is a little park off Hancock Rd. This is a really pretty lake, so I got a nice shot too.
The Berkshires are a nice backdrop.
We made it back to the inn for another dinner. As usual, it was delicious. I did manage to grab a few nice photos throughout the time we were there. Some of them came out blurry, but others didn’t. Here they are.
At the inn, there is a store called, “Country Curtains.” They have a very nice display in one of the hallways.
This is me sitting in a nice chair near the rear entrance. I thought I looked hot, so I made Laura take a picture.
And that’s it. Overall, it was a very nice vacation.
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Saturday, November 10th, 2007
This is getting pretty bad. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I noticed there was snow on the ground and immediately thought about writing a blog post about it. Yes, I probably should pursue therapy.
In any event, yes, it did snow last night. It was the first snow of the season for us in this part of New York. It actually hasn’t been cold really and there are still leaves on the trees…green ones on some. That strikes me as weird. Laura keeps telling me they are on the trees until after Thanksgiving. It’s nice to have a little brain so closeby.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, there was more snow on the ground. I guess some of it melted. I have to say, the sight of snow does give you a nice feeling. With all the Christmas commercials on TV these days, it is starting to feel like the season. Also, just a word of warning, these are the days that I start dreaming. These are the days of reflection on what I want to do with the rest of my life. I probably think this way because snow calms me down and gives me some breathing room.
We have had the pellet stove burning for most of the month of November and some of October. I am so happy we got this stove. It’s clean and very easy to operate. Gone are the days of splitting wood, dust and a mess in the house. I don’t think I will ever forget all the bark in the living room when I was a kid. I did like burning it though.
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Well, what do you think? Laura did this over the weekend. I like to see her all motivated like that.
I was busy installing her new car stereo for her and she was setting up the Halloween lights. It really can’t get any better than that. Like I have said, it’s the little things in life.
I took Monday off and hung around the house with her. I told her that I had a great weekend and meant it. I really can do that every day, especially if it’s sunny and about 62 degrees.
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Saturday, April 21st, 2007
I almost totally forgot about this picture. I was so busy the other day posting about our Easter hike at Bull’s Bridge in Kent, I completely overlooked the most important part of the morning – coloring Easter Eggs!
I was informed that this is “Laura’s” gig, so I wasn’t invited to participate. Can you believe it? Well, me keeping my mouth shut is how I maintain a smooth running relationship, so I just continued to go about my business. Laura made some fabulous looking eggs, but I want you to pay particular attention to her hands…yes, hmmm, her hands. Those weird little gloves come out every so often and they kind of freak me out. Just seeing her little fingers wiggle around in them give me the creeps. You be the judge.
By the way, for those of you who are still waiting for the 3rd funniest thing that ever happened in my life, I am still putting it together in my head. Thank you for your patience.
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Sunday, December 17th, 2006
Believe it or not, this is the first year Laura and I actually went out with the intention of bringing back a Christmas tree. I am not sure why we never had one before…probably because we just never got around to it. Well, that all changed today.
I spoke to Paul yesterday and happened to mention today’s agenda (Christmas tree). I said we would probably go to Home Depot or something and just grab one. He said, “No, you less than intelligent, but well intentioned friend. Go to Bell’s Christmas Trees and cut down your own.” Well, I hadn’t thought of actually cutting down our own tree. Somehow, and I do mean somehow, the thought of driving my “kill” home on the roof of my car was a little weird, but I got over it as soon as I pictured myself walking around thousands of pine trees with a saw in my hand.
We woke up nice and early this morning with the goal of beating the crowd up there in Accord. We made it out of the house by 9:30AM and were at the farm a little after 10AM. Like Paul said, there was hot chocolate, a saw and a little sled to drag the tree back to the car with.
The tree farm was better than I expected. You kind of never know what you are going to get up in these parts, but the trees were in great shape and there were plenty of them. The acreage was very clean and the employees very helpful. It was so nice to take our time and stroll around in the great weather (50s) for a while before stumbling across “the one.”
She was a Blue Spruce. She towered over me. She was a beauty and stood about ten feet tall. We thought for a few minutes about how we would fit a ten foot tall tree in the house. I kind of wasn’t listening because my mouth was already watering at the prospect of me putting a picture of me standing next to a ten foot tall tree on my blog. We agreed that a taller tree is better than a shorter one because we could always cut it if we needed to. But, my friends, don’t forget that we have thirteen foot vaulted ceiling in our living room. I cut her down and fastened it to our sled.
Let me give you a small peek into my mind right as soon as I tied it to the sled. “Man, I have about ten puncture wounds on my left hand from these needles.” That’s right, the needles were like little razors on a mission.
Now, let me give you another little peek into my mind as soon as I started dragging the tree back to the car. “Man, this is a very heavy ten foot tree.” Yes, again, that’s right, the weight of the tree created a magnified friction effect between the sled and the ground which, in turn, created a slower and more painful half-mile walk back to the car than if we had no tree at all. Laura helped pull during this agonizing trip and mentioned something about how mules felt. I told her this was no time for jokes and silence would be appreciated. Just kidding, I would never, ever talk to someone like that, especially Laura, my queen.
During our trip back, we paused for a moment to snap a photo of one of the hillsides. This was taken for the blog too. Ok, you know my secret. I take pictures for blogs, now forget about it. When we made it back to the home base, we paid the extra dollar for the nice men to tighten up the tree for us through their machine. Then, some generous guy in the parking lot helped me load the tree on top of my car.
I have no pictures of me dragging the tree up out front porch steps and into the house because I was too busy being maimed by the pine needles, but Laura took a few nice ones after we stood the tree up in the stand.
Not bad huh? She’s giant. We already put some lights up on it but need some more. I am going to grab them tomorrow and then I will post a picture of the final product. All I need now is some Egg Nog.
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